The way I have done it in the past is change the pivot point of the camera to where I want it to rotate around. So that the camera is always looking at the center of its rotation axis and if there is a character in the axis it will make a turntable effect to showcase.

How would I go about doing that with iClone?









76% of original size (was 660x19) - Click to enlarge

I usually make an invisible primitive prop (for example, set as dummy, so it doesn't render) and attach it to the character, so it stays at a certain height and don't flicker from the character motions. Then I use "Look at" (the primitive) with / from the camera.

Making "Look at" directly on the root of the character has given me problems in height of the camera when zooming in, and, for example, looking at the shoulder or head makes it flicker.

The camera can then be moved to the end position at later frames. Make sure it's not set to "preview" as I sometimes mistakenly do at that point. Do this in more repeats if needed, but don't turn it over 45 degrees around (in each step) as it can smooth it wrong and fly in the other direction out of misunderstanding.

If you want something more advanced then use a path for the camera, maybe attached to a primitive that follows the path, so you can put other effects or whatever, even save the new gizmo and reuse it. Should be possible to also make the camera directly follow the path, but then you can't save it.

I have seen users make complicated physics gizmo constructs for their cameras, so it's worth considering to make them as props and paths, maybe physics, so you can have them saved.

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another interesting approach, is to attach a camera to an avatar and have the avatar walk around your actor like a live camera man, especially cool to do with the kinect :w00t:

for a perfect spin, i like using the physics toolbox myself....but instead of attaching it the standard way....I just attach the camera directly to the dummy prop - from there you can set the camera to look at ....and as you adjust the angle and location the camera is attached to the physics dummy prop...the size of the circle changes. The parameter settings on the physics toolbox are rather fast ...so I'll just record it first, then stretch out the motion file it created to slow it down more.

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So I could create a dummy cylinder,
center it to the character's approximate center,
attach the cylinder to the world,
place the camera at the rim of the cylinder,
then make the camera look at the cylinder's axis,

But can I attach the camera to the cylinder's rim then turn the cylinder?

76% of original size (was 660x19) - Click to enlarge

when you attach it to the mesh, the camera will move whenever the mesh moves. True even if you have an object that's already spinning and attach any prop after.

now, if say you used a ball, and spun it in a perfect circle in place ....if you place the camera directly on top of the host dummy prop, in the middle ...it will spin in place 360 ( which is useful for exhibiting an environment )......if you move it away from the middle, the diameter of the spin it makes will increase. ( which is useful for orbiting a character / prop )

The best way to approach this is with a mini viewport that will show you whats on the camera you are animating ....but your main screen on the preview cam, animating the camera as a prop.

you can also get fancier with this approach if say for example....you attach the ball to a car ...move the car .....and animate the ball to spin, the camera would be spinning outside the ball while looking at the car......and the ball would be following the car...so you can have the camera perfectly orbit a moving prop.

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another way to do it, is to attach the avatar to a disc -flat ball - and spin the disk, creating a turntable......the camera doesn't move. This technique is good when you want a 360 of a character with consistent lighting to exhibit a model.

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Forgive me if I am reading this wrong but why not just try a simple way. Using the keyframes. Add a new camera a start. Move timeline and camera view so a keyframe is added on so on. Play the recording and the camera rotates around the subject.

This is how I used to do it "in the good old days"

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76% of original size (was 660x19) - Click to enlarge

the circle never comes out as smooth / perfect with keyframes from the auto align / smooth features - I always got quirks / glitches on the spins. It's easier / faster to spin a ball perfectly even, than it is to keyframe an orbiting camera.

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Yes, but you proberly need a smaller primitive for the "Look at" then. In any case, you can create the large cylinder and attach a primitive for the use of "the center axis" and build it as you like. Some of the construct can be invisible etc.

Maybe you need a primitive for the camera position on the large cylinder too.
At least it makes it easier to work with to put extra primitives in the beginning, so you can experiment until you figure out a great way to show it as you intended.

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Nothing wrong with the good old days. When I had dancers change motions and positions after a perfect camera movement as you say I reconsidered it. It always went off on something and required quite some editing of the keyframes. Especially if I decided to put 3 characters instead of 1, but I still use the technique with primitives as a safeguard of not losing a great move of the camera when I might change the other props and characters.

Essentially, it's the same thing. A perfection of it.

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